Venezuela deports French agent over Chavez assassination plot

Venezuelan authorities have deported a French man after serving four years in prison for his involvement in a plot to assassinate President Hugo Chavez.
Penitentiary Services Minister Iris Varela announced on Saturday the expulsion of Frederic Laurent Bouquet, whom he described as a French intelligence agent.
"French intelligence agent who served time for trying to kill the president has been expelled after confession of [his] role," Varela said in a Twitter message.
Varela also said that the French national was arrested in 2009 in the capital city of Caracas with weapons and sentenced to four years in prison.
Bouquet “confessed that he came to carry out a hit on [President Hugo] Chavez. He was detained with an arsenal in his possession," the minister added.
Some 13 rifles, two machine guns, explosives and ammunition, and military uniforms were confiscated at the time of his arrest.
Chavez who came to power in 1999, was reelected in October to a new six-year-long term. The President is currently in Cuba for cancer treatment.
The 58-year-old leader, who traveled to Havana on December 10, underwent a fourth round of surgery after his cancer reappeared, despite a year and a half of treatment.
Venezuelan authorities said earlier this month that Chavez was in stable condition after experiencing complications including bleeding during operation and respiratory infection following his surgery.
SAB/SZH